


Buttercup

by prosenpoetry



Series: IT Fanfiction [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Horror, Minor Character Death, Multi, POV Multiple, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27341935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosenpoetry/pseuds/prosenpoetry
Summary: In a town called Derry, a demonic entity known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown is terrorizing the lives of the residents there. At the same time, many of those same people have assumed that she is just a weak girl who can barely stand against the wind, but deep inside her delicate exterior lies a strong heart and the scars of the trauma that happened not long ago. She may be known as "weed" or "gooky" to many who will never understand her, but the truth is that she is the one and only Jasmine Jeong, one of the members of the infamous Losers Club.
Relationships: Bill Denbrough/Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier/Original Character(s), Richie Tozier/Original Female Character(s)
Series: IT Fanfiction [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028697





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, it's me again Lea. I actually have been finished with this fic some time ago, and I would like to upload it here. So if you like this fanfic, be sure to give kudos and comment. Thank you. ^^

* * *

# 

Prologue

* * *

August 1988

Fireflies were dancing in circles around the garden, illuminating the soft hues of the flowers and bushes in the middle of the twilight that gradually darkened. Jasmine admired the dreamy atmosphere as the violets, trillium, columbines, lupines, asters, and lilies were slowly closing their petals to sleep and the moonflowers were awakened by the touch of the moonlight. Not long, Auntie Lily was back from her kitchen, bringing two glasses of lemonade on a tray to wind down this very hot day. The two then sat on the crisp grass like they were on the picnic. It felt like home to Jasmine, and the feeling of loneliness about her parents on a mandatory business trip to the other side of the world was just gone the moment Auntie Lily was in her presence. It was heaven for her, for as long as she can remember.

“Auntie Lily, what are we going to do now?” Jasmine asked, not knowing what to do next. “Are we going to learn a new plant?”

Auntie Lily, as jolly as ever, replied with a raspy, but kind voice, “Ah, Moony, you are one curious child, my dear. You are growing so fast, and you will be twelve in a few months. And of course, you are going to learn a new plant today.”

“So what is it, Auntie?” Jasmine's inquisitive eyes glimmered with interest. “Is it a flower?”

“No, but good guess,” Auntie Lily answered as she showed Jasmine two poison ivy plants, “we are going to learn about the poison ivy plant and its leaves.”

“Poison ivy?” Jasmine asked as her brow furrowed, “I never heard of that before, so tell me about it.”

Auntie Lily let out a gentle cough before speaking. “The poison ivy plant is a plant that is pretty common here in Derry. It is famous for giving an unlucky person painful itches.”

“Ouch, that must hurt for them,” Jasmine said with a grimace, “Can the rashes get worse?”

“As long as you have lotions and creams for rashes, you should be…”

All of a sudden, the fireflies were no longer hovering around above the garden. Gusts of wind began to blow from all directions, and the warm summer air quickly turned cold. Strange noises could be heard from anywhere as they invade the peace that Jasmine and Auntie Lily experienced.

Sensing something very sinister was lurking behind their backs, Auntie Lily, without a second thought, whispered to Jasmine, “Go now, Jasmine. Go back to your home.”

Jasmine didn't quite understand what had just happened, but time did not give mercy for her brain to process. She did what Auntie Lily told and quietly ran away from the house through the front door.

Auntie Lily looked to her back and saw a pair of gangling red eyes glaring at her. She tried to remain composed, but was terrified internally. Despite all that, she was ready to fight the mysterious creature.

She said sternly to the creature, “If you take another step, you will surely get hurt.”

However, Auntie Lily did not expect the creature to transform into a clown in the blink of an eye. She was shocked by it, but she refused to express any feeling of fear on her face.

“Oh, it’s you, Pennywise, what are you doing here?”

“It’s good to see you, Lily. And what am I doing here? I am here to tell you that me and my circus are blown away by a windstorm. Would you like to go there with me? I promised to give you the best flowers that you have ever seen,” Pennywise replied as he handed out a bouquet of poppies from out of the blue.

Auntie Lily gave a second to think how to respond before she boldly refused Pennywise, rubbing the leaves of an ivy plant on its hands and neck, inflicting red blotches that began to take on the clown’s pallid skin. Pennywise shrieked loudly in pain when Auntie Lily’s hands held on to the poison ivy leaves, preparing to harm the creature further. Auntie Lily then approached the enraged clown, making a tight fist with the leaves in between.

Auntie Lily voiced her anger towards the clown, “I don’t care if I die, but if you keep on hurting these children, I’m telling you, you’ll be dead in their hands!”

She went on to punch Pennywise’s nose, spreading the itch to its face. However, when her fist first landed on its nose, the clown revealed its foul mouth that contained its nightmarish teeth. In an instant, the clown forcefully grabbed her arm and viciously bit it off. A barrage of screams escaped Auntie Lily’s mouth as the clown continually attacked her. The clown once again devoured her other arm from her torn body. The echoes of her yelling in terror were further amplified as there was no rain.

“Pl-please let me live…” Auntie Lily’s voice croaked as death was putting her into an eternal sleep. Pennywise then dragged the old lady’s corpse to a nearby sewer when the rashes started to hurt him inside out.

At a safe distance away, Jasmine was running with all her might, away from the horrors happening in the usually blissful place. She stopped and silently panted, looking back to see if there was someone chasing her. She saw no one, but a bloody hand poking out of a sewer several yards away. It was covered with blood, and holding an ivy plant. At that moment she knew that Auntie Lily was forever gone as tears built up in her eyes. However, what horrified her the most was the blood mixed with the leftover rainwater from hours ago. The ferrous liquid sent her mind into an uncontrollable frenzy. Several pants slowly escaped from her lips.

"An dwae!" (1) she murmured as her breathing became heavier.

"I must get back home soon, no matter what," Jasmine quietly told herself when a bout of seizure suddenly hit her. Her legs kept on running, even if they were jaded from the previous run. Her eyes were set on her home, which was not far away from where she was. After her last foot set itself on her home, Jasmine then collapsed due to the overbearing exhaustion shown on her aghast face. She knew she was at last home when she saw a silhouette of a man and a woman in their uniforms running to get her before her eyes slowly closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) "An dwae!" (안 돼) means "Oh, no!"


	2. School's Out

* * *

# Jasmine

* * *

10 Months Later

How time flew so fast! Today was the last day of school, and I was just so excited for summer break to come. I could not wait for all the time I get to spend with my friends, especially the adventures that await the moment the gruff red alarm went off. Funny flashbacks from last summer were reeling in the back of my mind while the math teacher was talking about an equation I could not quite understand. And boy, they were the center of my attention at that instance, even when the bell rang and nearly everyone left the room.

“Uh, J-J-Jasmine, sc-school is already o-over,” my friend Bill said.

I snapped back to reality and said with pure shock, “Oh boy, did not realize that school is really over! Mianhamnida!”(1)

“N-no need to ap-apologize,” Bill replied with a smile as I packed up my bag, “let’s go.”

We both went out of the classroom and saw Richie, Eddie, and Stan waiting for us.

“Finally Jasmine, we’ve been waiting for you for quite a while,” Stan said.

“Yeah, where have you been? Daydreaming about me again, buttercup?” Richie asked with a smirk.

My cheeks went a bit red. Embarrassed, I speak, “Ah, sorry about that, I just got too caught up with my world. And no, it’s not really about you, Richie. It’s actually about what we are all going to do...”

Richie finished my last sentence when I paused to think about something else. “Speaking of summer, we should have been out of this fucking building.”

“A-alright, then w-w-we are going,” Bill stuttered as the five of us were walking through the main hall, with Eddie besides me.

Outside was a pandemonium caused by mobs of students that either waited to be picked up by their parents or still talked to their friends. We passed by them as we exited the school’s domain. The sky was sunny, and yet it was getting cloudier each minute went by. The cool breezes gently whistled through our ears while a loud thud could be heard from a car not far away. I stopped in my tracks and looked around to investigate what it was. Richie and Stan were catching up on me, talking about the Barrens, when a roguish boy known as Henry Bowers, or Bowels, pulled Richie’s backpack, resulting in him, Stan, and I falling on our backs like a pile of dominoes.

“Nice frisbee, flamer,” Patrick, another guy with dark hair, chuckled evilly.

I am not sure what it was that Patrick had, but I can see Stan struggling to grab the thing from him before Patrick snickered as he threw the item, hitting the departing school bus.

“Fucking losers,” was what I heard next.

Seconds later, a guy in the cap, who went by the name Belch, burped loudly on Eddie’s face before pushing him down. Bowels bumped hard onto Bill, muttering quietly about us being losers.

Out of the blue, Bill yelled while he stammered, “Y-y-y-you suck, B-B-Bowers.” Everything went quiet as Bowels and his cronies turned around.

Eddie looked at Bill in the eye and said, “Shut up, Bill.”

Not long, Bowels raised his voice as he mimicked Bill’s stutter. “You say something, B-B-Billy?” he mockingly stuttered as Richie, Stan, and I stood up and joined with Bill and Eddie.

“You get a free ride this year ‘cause of your little brother,” Bowels continued as emotions were bubbling inside me like magma, “Ride’s over, Denbrough.”

Silence was then set on, and no one, but Bowels, knew why.

“This summer’s gonna be a hurt train for you and your faggot friends,” Bowels said as he licked his palm and rubbed his slobbery hand on Bill’s face before he and his minions left, sniggering over our “loss.”

With hurt and fury, we looked at the gang plopping themselves into a blue car before the engine started to gurgle on gasoline as it was turned on.

I mumbled with the best effort to hold back this fiery feeling, “Ah, chon-nom beo-seos…”(2)

“I wish he’d go missing,” Richie said with a sigh, “he’s probably the one doing it.”

The car began to take on its course when Eddie spotted a lane of bicycles.

* * *

# Beverly

* * *

The afternoon sun was shining above the slightly hazy sky, piercing the ground with its radiant rays. Sounds of cheerful kids could be heard nearby, excited about finally breaking free from the shackles they called ‘school’ and ‘homework’ as they exchanged farewells with each other. Yellow school buses could be seen picking up students to their respective homes.

Meanwhile, I was running away from Greta, who was with her two bitches as usual. I could hear them yelling close to my ears. I rushed through the other kids, roads, and bushes when I bumped into a plump boy hard, causing his building model to fall.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I apologized with a grimace on my face as the boy got up.

The boy then responded with kind eyes staring at me, “It’s okay.”

“Pardon me if I destroy your project,” I said while I grabbed the house model. Fortunately, it showed no signs of any damage.

“Thanks, and who are you?”

“I’m Beverly Marsh. You can call me Bev. How about you?”

The boy replied as a few shades of pink appeared on his cheeks, “Um, my name is Ben, and it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“It is also nice to meet you too, Ben. Do you have any friends?”

“No, all the kids here just make fun of my body,” Ben said sadly, “It’s just a surprise to see you not…”

“Ssshhh,” I interrupted his sentence, “Ben, trust me, not all kids here will only look at just your body.”

“I-I-I just don’t know,” he stammered.

“I know you will,” I smiled as I looked at the sun beginning to go down from its high, “By the way, I gotta go. Bye, Ben!”

“Bye, Bev.”

* * *

# Mike

* * *

Delivering meat to the butcher shop was not an easy job. I rode my bicycle through the buildings and alleys of the town nearly everyday, and today was no different. There were a few cars here and there, but the town was relatively quiet at most. A few seconds later though, I could hear a car revving, and I knew this was bad news. I cycled even faster before going into the alley where the butcher shop was, avoiding the car for now. I exhaled out of relief before propping my bike on a nearby dumpster.

I was bringing out some of the wrapped meat before a voice called my name. For a second I must be hearing things, but man, that voice was eerie. I gaped in shock and horror as several black hands wormed their way out of the door. Agonizing screams were accompanied with begging before opening the door, revealing nothing, but a shady figure of a man with red eyes glaring into mine.

Then a teal car went towards me, and I knew it was the same car as before. I quickly backed off and fell on my back.

“Step the fuck out of a cow!” a boy with a blonde mullet known as Bowers yelled at me before throwing a rock at me, causing me to flinch right when they drove away from me.

It took me seconds to realize that the whole thing was just not real when I saw the butcher walking towards the entrance.

“Are you okay?” the man asked me with concerned eyes, “Are you alright?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) "Mianhamnida" (미안합니다) means "Sorry" in a formal way  
> (2) "...chon-nom beo-seos…” (촌놈 버섯) means "...those unsophisticated toadstools…"


	3. Saved from the Fray

* * *

# Ben

* * *

The Next Day

It had been a day after I first met Bev. I went to the library as I had planned before. Speaking of her, she was just so beautiful like an angel. Her eyes, her hair, her smile, and everything about her was just lovely. Even if I managed to wipe the goofy grin that I had on my chubby face, I could not get her off of my mind. If anything, she had set my mind and my heart ablaze.

As soon as I entered the library’s domain, I proceeded to a nearby table and put my belongings on it. I took a seat and I found a postcard lying down below me. At first, the postcard seemed unassuming until an idea popped up in my mind.

“Your hair is winter fire, January embers, my heart burns there too,” I whispered in delight, writing out my heart’s confessions on the postcard to the girl who got my cheeks flaring red. I smiled as I ended the poem. I kept on wondering if I was ever going to meet her again, especially in the town I recently moved in. 

After quite a while, I stood up to stretch my body and walked to a bookshelf not far away. There was a book titled The History of Derry, and I took the book to read. I flipped through many pages, later stumbling to a section of the book that troubled me. Series of stories about mysterious tragedies and sudden disappearances throughout the centuries were recorded in the few pages I had read so far. I read further into them up until the story about a headless boy from the gas explosion in an Easter egg hunt decades ago.

As I dive myself further into the book, I heard the sound of the wind whooshed from behind. I glanced back to have a look of what it was and saw a red balloon gliding towards a door. Curiosity got the best of me and I followed wherever the red balloon went, only to see an egg in front of my eyes. This reminds me of Easter back in my hometown. Without hesitation, I continued to follow the trail, in which another egg appeared after the other. Not long, I found myself in the darkness that inhabited the basement. Seeing an egg nearby, I got it from the floor before the lights went awry.

I wondered what had gone wrong before seeing a dark apparition passing by the library archives and catalogs. Dumbstricken, I looked back to find a way out before seeing a boy slowly walking down the stairs. 

“Hello, egg boy.”

It was at that moment I realized that he was the headless boy from the story I had read minutes ago. Explosives were being set up on the stairs as I stared at him with fear quivering within me. He approached me when my feet began to set off in response to my reflexes. I dashed through the shelves as he followed me from behind.

“Egg boy,” the boy said when I found a door nearby. I opened it before he could get a hold of me, but ended up bumping into the librarian. The librarian was as startled as I was. I stared back to see if he crept behind me, only to find nothing.

I turned back to the librarian and apologized to him before going back to gather my bag and books and left the library to go home. Man, it had been quite a disturbing discovery to see a headless boy in the basement. I pondered if this day could get any worse.

I continued to walk as if nothing had ever happened, not long before hearing someone asking me, “Where do you think you are going, tits?”

An “oh, no” reflex sparked my legs to run, only running into a boy with messy, black hair. Then two other boys grabbed my limbs and pulled my shirt to cover my face before bringing me to a menacing face with a mullet.

While they made fun of Michael Jackson and blasted a fire from the lighter, I kept on begging for their mercy.

“Get off me!” I repeatedly cried out for help to a passing car. However, no one answered.

The boys kept on punching my face until my nose bled dark red while Henry muttered something to me before he unsheathed a knife.

“Henry, please…” I implored, but had done nothing to stop him from carving the letter H on my belly. I winched from the immediate suffering it inflicted.

Henry kept on blurting out a string of curses upon me before an ingenious idea dawned in my mind a second later. Like a knee jerk reflex, I kicked Henry in the place where the sun did not shine, plunging myself into the earth down below.

I could hear the boys yelling at each other, deciding to hunt me down. With time ticking, I rolled and ran with all of my might before they had another chance to hurt me again. I jumped through the rocks and drifted through the water coursing in the river. I took a peek behind, and they were out of my sight.

Even though it was a victory for me then, the pain from my wounds and bruises caused me to stumble to the rocky ground. I huddled my body together to cope with the agony. When I could not handle it anymore, I screamed as quietly as I could before hearing a girl’s soft voice not far away from where I was.

“Guys, I heard someone screaming.”

“Oh, y-you have g-good ears, Ja-Ja-Jasmine,” another voice, this time from a boy, said, “c-c-can you l-lead us to h-him or her?”

“Sure thing, Bill.”

A minute later, I found myself surrounded with four boys and a girl. I didn’t know what to say or do. Could it be just my imagination?

"Are you guys Pennywise?"

"No," a girl with black wavy hair spoke dreamily, "we just happened to hear you screaming in pain." I could see her eyes brimming with concern and her face beginning to go pale.

"B-by all me-means, we are not Pe-Pennywise," a boy with brown hair stuttered.

"Then who are you guys?" I asked, wanting to reassure myself that they are not Pennywise.

"My-my name is B-Bill," answered the stutterer.

“I am Richie,” said the boy with curly, dark hair and thick-rimmed glasses, “How are you going?”

“I am Eddie,” said the shorter of the boys with a weak smile.

“Stan’s my name,” said the boy with light brown curly hair.

“And I am Jasmine, but you can also call me Jaz. What is your name?” the girl wearing a Care Bear t-shirt and pink rain boots inquired as she squatted to meet my eyes.

“My name is Ben,” I replied.

Jaz spoke as she tried to hold back her tears, “Oh, nice to meet you Ben. By the way, you look like you need some help…”

“Yeah, you look like you are hurt by fucking Bowers!” Richie exclaimed.

“We need to get him to the pharmacy quick,” Eddie told the others after looking at how serious my injuries are.

“Al-alright, Ben, y-y-you can h-have a ride w-with me,” Bill took me to a seat behind his bicycle seat while the rest were waiting for us in their bicycles. I got onto my seat and held on Bill’s back.

“Are we ready yet?” asked Stan.

“Yeah, we-we are!” And off we went to the roads that awaited us. We rode as fast as though there were ambulances during an emergency.

After a few minutes and several “health lectures” delivered by Eddie, we were right at the alley behind where the pharmacy was. Bill propped up a makeshift chair for me to sit on while the others were discussing who should be getting the medicine.

“R-Richie, wait here,” Bill instructed Richie, who was standing nearby me, before joining Jaz and the other boys towards the pharmacy.

“I’m glad I got to meet you before you died,” Richie said to me with a blank expression. Everything went silent since that.

* * *

Several Minutes Later

* * *

“I need to focus right now,” Eddie told everyone as he applied bandages and stitches to my wounds.

“You need to focus now?” Stan asked.

“Yeah.” Eddie continued to tend to my wounds as Richie, Stan, and Jaz watched. The boys kept on arguing, while Jaz remained calm and quiet with her eyes scrutinized towards the injury. Seconds later, I could see Bill and a girl walking towards me. And wait, was that girl Bev?

The redhead then asked me, “Are you okay? It looks like it hurts.”

“No, I’m good,” I lied, trying to excuse myself from saying that it was Henry who hurt me, “I just fell.”

“Right in the head of Bowers,” Richie blurted out, causing uneasiness to knot in our stomachs. Bill quickly admonished Richie, but the latter defended his statement as it was the truth.

“Are you sure you got the right things to fix them up?” Bev asked with a smirk, ignoring the others. Tints of red began to circulate up to my cheeks as I beamed with embarrassment.

“You know, I-I got, I-I-I mean, we w-w-will take care of him. Thanks again, Beverly.”

“Sure,” Bev replied, “Maybe I will see you guys around.”

“Yeah, we-we-we are thinking of going to the quarry to-to-tomorrow.”

“Good to know, thanks,” Bev happily agreed.

“Beverly, maybe we can meet up at this place again tomorrow,” Jaz suggested before Bev thanked her and left, resuming with our talk.

“W-why do we bring up Bo-Bowers to her?” Bill questioned. I also wondered why.

“What did she do?” I asked innocently, having no clue of what was going on as I was relatively new to Derry.

“More like who didn’t she do. From what I heard, the list is longer than my wang...” Richie answered as Jaz’s cheeks flushed a bit in confusion.

“That’s not saying much,” Stan chortled at Richie’s remark.

“She and I are just classmates in English class, but man, I really feel her,” Jaz murmured sadly “She does not deserve all the suffering Greta made her feel...”

“Basically, the bitches who bully her all pee rose water,” Richie interjected.

After several words were exchanged between each of us, I could see Jaz heading towards her bike.

“Guys, I will be going back home now,” Jaz said as she plopped herself onto her bike and rode away, waving at us. “See y'all tomorrow.”

We all said our goodbyes to her and went on with our conversations about what happened to me. Out of all the days, this was both my luckiest and unluckiest day.


	4. The \Fear Finally Seen

* * *

# Eddie

* * *

After saying goodbye to my friends, I walked back from the alley all the way to my home, which took me quite a while. Everything went fine other than the possible creepy-crawlies that might hitch a ride on my body. A few minutes later, I was still sauntering along the sidewalk when I passed by a dark mansion overlooking the desolate fields surrounding it. It didn’t take long before I remembered a horrible encounter with some leper the other day, followed by goosebumps tingling on my skin.

That day was a sunny day while I was walking back home from school. The sun was slowly setting down, lightening up my face. I covered up my mouth with my hands to make whistling noises. I then stopped and looked at my watch to check the time.

Not long, I saw a black abandoned house on my right side, overflowed with the dark aura that it gave out. My eyes widened with fear and shock as I grabbed my inhaler from my fanny pack. My whole body shook when I dropped my inhaler. I searched for it for a few seconds before finding it. I gathered some of the pills that had dropped onto the street before a diseased hand picked up the last pill.

I looked up to the hand when the man who possessed the hand grumbled. He then revealed his face with his mouth salivated as his speech slurred into jumbled words. My face went aghast from seeing him, and it was a matter of a second before his hands could clutch my body. I stammered, crawling backwards before I stood up and ran.

I ran and ran before the craziness of the man went down, seeing a clown and a handful of red balloons hiding his face afterwards. I breathed hard as the clown revealed himself.

“Where are you going, Eddie?” before he let out a malicious laugh that quickly faded into the air.

I sighed in relief that it didn’t happen today at the very least. Though I made it home without any further hassle, I was still troubled by what had just happened to me. It was as though that day was trying to have a grip on my sanity. I swear that leper man almost took my breath and made my mind crazy.

* * *

# Stan

* * *

Rehearsing for my upcoming bar mitzvah was no fun. My parents had been anticipating this for months even before I turned thirteen. They had been telling me to study the many verses written on the Torah that was placed on the table. My eyes intensely gazed upon them for hours before I thought it was enough for today.

I closed the Torah and went back to the altar room. As I walked by, I saw a painting that was hung in an odd way, which got on my nerves. Inside the painting was a distorted portrait of a woman staring through my soul. She had a large forehead, white droopy eyes, thin eyebrows, black lips, and a pointy chin. I went closer to fix the painting before I walked towards the bookshelf ro put the Torah back.

However, when I looked back, it was no longer on the wall. Its frame and its canvas were laying on the adorned rug. I glanced at them in disbelief as the lights went on and off before dimming to darkness. I picked up the empty painting and hung it back to where it was supposed to be. Suspicion and uneasiness began to rise within me, causing my stomach to feel nauseous.

I turned to see a disfigured woman whose face was similar to the one on the painting before. She moved a few steps towards me before revealing her fearsome teeth. Without a gasp, I ran into the office to escape her clutches. From this day on, I would always be disturbed of ever seeing her or even a mere thought about her.

* * *

# Jasmine

* * *

_The sun was slowly setting down, emitting its vivid, warm orange hues. It was a pretty sight when I just arrived, wearing a light blue day dress. She was on the front porch as usual and sipped her tea while waiting for me._

_“Oh, Moony, you are here.” She opened her arms to hug me._

_“Auntie Lily, what are we going to learn today?” I asked with beaming curiosity._

_Her voice was as gentle and jolly as ever, but what I yet to notice was her wicked grin as she caressed a bouquet of red and white flowers._

_“We are going to learn about the poppies.”_

_“Alright,” was all I respond._

_After we passed by the living room to go to the backyard and opened the back door, I was stunned as I looked at the blood-stained grass and soil and contemplated on this gruesome scene and how it came to be. As I walked further into the garden, I got a few glimpses of the bloody corpses hidden inside the bushes. Then I realized that they were all my friends._

_“Jasmine, look at me,” Auntie Lily told me._

_I asked in disbelief, “Auntie Lily, what just happened? Did you do something to them?” The grin on her face became creepier as she gave away some of her teeth._

_“You see, I am the one who will feed on their bodies and their blood as my sustenance.”_

_Panic increasingly grew within me. “What about my appa (1) and eomma (2)?”_

_“I had eaten them,” Auntie Lily growled menacingly, “and you are next!”_

_She grabbed my arm with brute force towards her mouth, revealing its glaring red eyes._

_“Andwae!” I screamed in terror as I collapsed from a sudden spasm before everything went pitch black._

Strangely, when I expected to feel pain throughout my body, I only felt the fluffiness of my bed clinging to my body as I opened my eyes. However, when I tried to move my arms, I could not. Million things were swirling in my mind while my body remained frozen. Could my parents and my friends be really hurt by now?

“Aegiya (3), tea’s ready.”

I knew it must be eomma from the faint aroma of barley tea downstairs. My mouth watered a bit the moment I thought about it. Nonetheless, my body was still in shock, trying to figure out the meaning behind the imaginary trauma.

Eomma’s voice called for me again, “Aegiya?”

I really wanted to go and hug her, but my limbs were still too weak to move on their own.

“Are you in your bedroom?”

“Yes,” I yelled as loud as possible before I heard a door downstairs swinging. It was appa coming home from work.

After some talking, I could hear footsteps coming towards my room. Appa and eomma opened the door and saw me with worried eyes as I crouched in anxiety.

“Aegiya, what’s wrong?” eomma softly asked. Her worry could be seen from her face.

“I just had a really bad nightmare.”

Eomma pressed on, curious despite feeling dismayed. “About what?”

“It’s about Auntie Lily and that eomma, appa, and my friends were all dead,” I said as a tear dropped from my right eye.

With a reassuring look, appa said as he and eomma hugged me, “Aegiya, those nightmares are not real. You, me, eomma, and all your friends are safe.”

“I-I-I hope they are doing fine,” I quivered, “But Auntie Lily was so scary.”

“You know, aegiya, that the Auntie Lily in your dream was really not her. If I’m not wrong, she can also turn into a clown. I don’t know much, but remember this. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear,” appa said as I began to feel slightly better.

“Are you feeling better, aegiya?” Eomma smiled once more.

“Yes, eomma, I’m ready for some tea,” I replied as the three of us broke off the hug.

* * *

# Beverly

* * *

The corridors of the apartment were dark as I closed the door behind. I could hear the TV blaring while I continued to walk. Not long, I saw daddy appearing from nowhere. Beyond the shock shown in my face, I was scared inside.

“Hi, daddy.”

“Hey, Bevvie,” daddy greeted me back, “What did you get there?”

“Just some things,” I lied.

“Okay,” daddy said before he chuckled as he placed his calloused hands on my cheeks and then to my hair. He smelled my head before he gave my forehead a kiss.

“Tell me, you are still my golden girl,” he said as he ran his hands on my cheeks once more.

I replied, “Yes, daddy.” He then said okay before shoving me to go back to his usual business.

I took a stroll to the bathroom, carrying my bag. As soon as I entered the bathroom, I locked the door in fear my daddy might get his hands on me once more. Honestly, all the advances my daddy had been making became more crude and sexual, as if he saw me as a doll and nothing more. My long ginger locks, the ones I used to cherish, were now my curse. I knew there was no other way, but to cut them from my head.

My left hand grabbed the scissor that was placed on the top of the sink while water from the tap was running. I brushed my hair before I snipped several lengths of my hair that fell into the drain hole. I cried out all of my misery that I felt living with my daddy. More and more of my hair fell until my head felt lighter from the back. I looked at myself in the mirror, finally feeling relief filling my mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. “appa” (아빠) means “dad”  
> 2\. “eomma” (엄마) means “mom”  
> 3\. “aegiya” (애기야) means “baby” or “sweetie”


End file.
